Rural EMS in Utah; making emergency services an essential service & solutions to funding

There is a paradox in Utah's emergency medical services. An ambulance is required to respond but that service isn't deemed an essential service. That's lead to a situation where local governments end up footing the bill for emergency response outside the community. An ambulance will arrive as soon as possible but could be traveling hours to get to an accident.

So what happens when there is an emergency but no one is available to jump in the ambulance to respond? It falls to the next closest resource. We saw this play out in 2019 with a bus crash in Garfield County. The EMT's who responded had to travel more than a 100 miles to get to the crash site.

Representative Dan Johnson discusses his work at the legislature to create a bill that will make EMS an essential service just like fire and police. This is the foundation to building solutions for keeping people in the community protected but there is still a lot to discuss.

Highlights:
• Codifying EMS as an essential service

• COVID19 cut additional funding in half for 2020

• Volunteers

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Produced by Derek Dowsett
Host Chad Booth
Technical Director: Brian Schuster

ABOUT THE COUNTY SEAT: The County Seat is a public affairs program about the functions and issues of county elected officials and county government in UTAH. The County Seat is designed to provide the essentials to being an informed and engaged citizens in what we view as the most important level of government to daily life, county government. Topics range from the life of a ballot to the wild horses on public lands. The majority of Utah's 29 counties are rural with a concentration of urban issues along the Wasatch Front. This dynamic lends an interesting twist to the show where we highlight a number of rural issues that the majority of Utahns may not be as familiar with. #CountiesMatter #CoutySeatS10E24

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